Oh and another thing, what's up with Tayshaun Prince's poor FT shooting this season? 55.6% from the charity stripe??? He's worse than Max! Not to mention I think T-Mac has missed his last 7 FT attempts too. Poor FT shooting is biting us in the butt.

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Tay is bad...and T-mac is about the same at 7/19....in fact the whole team stinks and we are 27th in the league shooting 69.7%. So far we are -236 in FT differental as oir opponents are not only getting to the line more but are shooting better than us....better FT shooting would have possibly translated into 3 more victories.

Check out this link for all of the current stats....on how we are compare vs the rest of the league. We neer the bottom of the list in points in the paint too.

We don't want to injure the trade bait. Just need him to keep improving so that we can package him up with Rip and send them to a contender for major space and future value.

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That won't happen under Joe's watch it's not his style. He'll sign T-Mac for low $$$ (like Ben, Chauncey and Dyess) and get big rewards when Tracy gets back to balling and that's not a far fetched idea because he's starting to do some really exciting things on the floor, that 1st half stint was a thing of beauty.

First, we started out badly, going down about 12-0 before Kuester called a timeout. And as usual, he did not fix much, sending the same guys back out there. But it did not get any worse after that. Neither Ben Wallace nor JMAX could stop Dirk from hitting his shots over them. The announcers kept trying to cover, saying they were just great shots by Dirk. But when Dirk does not even have to jump to shoot over you, that is not all that good a shot. Monroe could have been brought in to help- or better yet, he could have started the game to guard Dirk to begin with.

Our shooters just could not shoot. Thankfully, we got Stuckey, who just crashes repeatedly to the basket, making all his free throws as he gets fouled. And Tay, after one ill advised 3 late, went inside to good effect. Indeed, it seemed like they could have done a whole lot more of that all game. How bad was the shooting? CV just 2 points. Rip could not hit the side of a barn. Gordon was off too. And speaking of Gordon, very bad choice by Q to go small ball at for the last 4 minutes of the game after CV got that 5th foul. With JMAX as the only big, and JMAX not being a rebounder, we simply had no rebounder in the game at all. Something Q seems comfortable with, unfortunately.

Still a good effort by the Pistons though. Lots of good stuff happened in this game.

1) TMAC went in for a dunk from the left, dunking with a quickness and force that is rare to see. They just kept showing that replay, but the original angle on the play was the best. Amazing. Gives you a lot of hope for the season yet. And TMAC hit a shot over someone, made some defensive plays. But, TMAC could not guard Butler in the 4th quarter. So TMAC sat early, leaving Tay to finish out the game without enough rest. Worse, Tay then ended up playing power forward, like a gnat on Dirk - that Dirk barely noticed.

2. Monroe actually got to play some power forward in this one. Initially, after CV's fifth foul, JMAX came in at center with Monroe. Also, we finished the last 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter with JMAX and Monroe. And Monroe looked just fine at power forward. Unfortunately, he still needs a lot of experience as far as scoring in the NBA around the basket. He has got to learn how to protect the ball as he goes up with it.

3. Bynum was effective enough in the first half. The announcers admitted something that I was worried was happening. Bynum is playing on a bum leg yet. The hammy ain't healed. I say let it heal, and try using TMAC at point.

4. Dallas is a strong offensive team, and yet our defense held them in check very well for much of the game. We had a 24 point turn around from the opening of the game until late in the 3rd quarter. Against Dallas.

And the bad. Coach did not use Daye, for the 2nd straight game. No Mr. Kuester, you are not fooling anyone. We still know Daye is on the team. I am going to count this as a good thing though. We almost still beat Dallas even though we failed to use one of our best players. Man, if we had a decent coach.

Time to go off to class.

On a side note, I played a game of stock market after the game. My daughter won. Anyone else remember that game. A three for one on General Mills did me in.

Bynum and TMAC led us all the way back pretty much in the 2nd quarter.

Maxey did have trouble guarding Dirk, but he could have done that against anyone that covered him. I think the idea was that Max could cut Big Dirk's legs out from his J's with his size.

Aside from the 42 pts and 12 boards I thought the Pistons got a lot out of the Max/Ben pairing. They made life difficult on Chandler and Haywood (Boy did Joe blow it not signing this stud!!!) on the glass and any of the Mavs who were taking the ball to the hoop.

This might be the first game all year where Stuckey scored more in quarters 2-4 than he did in the 1st.

Monroe looked active and quick making his moves with the ball, but I agree he's got to start scoring from 3' out. That is pathetic.

It seems the Pistons choices at the end of the game where going small or going with the offensively challenged duo of Ben and Max. Maybe that would have worked with the 3 guards.

Those missed rebounds weren't a result of small ball, they came off long to the perimeter, that's the guards responsibilities, also Gordon Stretches the defense and allows driving lanes to the hoop as players are reluctant to leave him, notice Tay got 2 really good drives to the hoop late as did Stuckey, it was a good coaching move and it was smart to have him out on the floor.

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My point is not why we played Gordon. My point is that we didn't use him when he was in. Any time you go small, you are taking a risk. If you're going to take a risk, it makes no sense to restrain the potential for reward.

That lineup that closed up the game was horrible. Nothing more and nothing less.

It's funny how the collective memory of this forum records specific performances.

We should create a youtube video of PF.com hall of fame performances.

WB's three pointer.
WH's defensive clinic on Dirk.
Darko's AOTG montage
Cheikh Samb/Amir Johnson's block party on the Lakers
Tay's breakout playoff game where we ran the offense through him in the post time after time.